Connecticut lost 10,400 jobs in January; harsh winter blamed

Harsh winter blamed for employment woes

WETHERsfield >> Connecticut lost 10,400 jobs in January, due in part to the impact severe winter weather had on economic activity, officials at the state Department of Labor said Friday.

There were 1,653,100 people employed in Connecticut in January, according to the latest Labor Department data. Despite the significant job loss for the month, the state’s unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point to 7.2 percent.

Andy Condon, director of the Labor Department’s office of research, said in a statement that if January’s job loss is due to weather conditions. “We should see growth trends return in future months.”

“However, the steep decline in January payroll jobs remains a concern,” Condon said.

Gov. Dannel Malloy said January’s job losses show that “clearly, we have much more work to do.”

“But we are making steady progress in our effort to create good paying jobs with good benefits for middle class families in Connecticut,” Malloy said in a statement.

All but two of the 10 employment categories included in the Labor Department had job losses. The manufacturing sector added 1,300 jobs in January, a gain that was overshadowed by 3,800 positions lost in the retail trade sector and a decline of 2,900 in the leisure and hospitality industry.

Peter Gioia, an economist with the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, called the January employment numbers “some of the worst news we’ve seen in quite some time.”

Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners, said that like state Labor Department officials, he believes severe winter weather will continue to have an impact on Connecticut’s employment numbers.

“I fully expect both the January and February data to reflect the harsh winter weather, and then rebound dramatically into midyear,” Klepper-Smith said. “Clearly an interesting way to start off the year, but I do think we’ll see moderate job gains for all of 2014.”

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